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AND WHAT BUSINESSES
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2 l www.keepsocialhonest.com

INTRODUCTION
Today, however, consumers face anonslaught of complex messages frommultiple directions and across multiple
devices. Facebook tells you what yourfriends like before they do. Brands
compete for your attention on yourTwitter feed and supermarkets offer
coupons in exchange for comments.
Moreover, a persuasive review on Amazon
or TripAdvisor from someone you
don’t even know will probably influence
your opinion more than a friend or
family member.
This transformation in how we absorb
and share information isn’t a problem
in itself. Social media has been
empowering and liberating in a multitudeof ways. But as a fifth of the world’s
population has piled onto Facebook,brands and businesses have spotted
new opportunities to win our affection
and ultimately our money - and theprocesses involved are increasingly
being questioned. Indeed, we live ina world where even the Prime Ministerhas been accused of paying Facebook
to get more likes.

Taking steps to ensure the integrity ofinteractions between businesses andconsumers on social media has therefore
never been more pressing and the goodnews is that it’s a win-win endeavour.
Consumers get relevant, captivating andgenuinely useful content and marketers
get to reach their commercial goals more
effectively, efficiently and innovatively.
It is for this reason that we have undertaken
this major and unique research study,
supported by YouGov, to explore the path topositive engagement between consumers andbrands. Admittedly thorny at points along
the way, it is a path that culminates with avoluntary set of standards for business tohelp keep social honest. We have called thesestandards the ‘Ten Commandments of Keeping
Social Honest’ and we believe they are pledges
that brands and businesses cannot afford to
break.
In this report, we take you on the journeyof the rationale behind these Ten
Commandments, which we then explain.
But we would urge you not to see the Ten
Commandments as marking the end of thisjourney. Far from it, we believe they markthe beginning of a way forward that will
maintain the reputation and value of social
media for users and businesses alike.

www.keepsocialhonest.com l 3

METHODOLOGY

THE RATIONALE

There is no shortage of studies that have surveyed consumers’
perceptions about the behaviour of brands and businesses on social
media platforms. What we wanted was to gain perspectives fromboth sides of the equation, questioning both consumers and industry
to get a clear picture of the areas both where there is convergenceof opinion and where there is divergence of views.

Social media usage
The level of consumer engagementwith social media is alone enoughto justify the rationale for the
Ten Commandments. Twitter,
Facebook and LinkedIn are all
past the half-way tipping pointin terms of consumer use, withless than half of respondents using
none of these three platforms.
Facebook is the largest social
network by some considerable
margin, with 72% saying they haveused it in the last three months.
Just under one in three (31%)
used Twitter in the same period,
while 17% used LinkedIn.

The rich pool of data we ended up with provides so much more thana list of headline-grabbing statements aimed at short-term media
coverage. In other words, it provides not just a fleetingly interesting
snapshot but a full and rounded picture, as well as both comprehensive
and intriguing insight, and it is this that’s enabled us to develop the‘Ten Commandments of Keeping Social Honest’.
In order to achieve our aims, we commissioned leading independent
market research firm YouGov to conduct two online surveys
throughout the month of April 2014. The first was a nationallyrepresentative survey of more than 3,200 UK consumers and thesecond was of over 1,000 UK marketers working across a mixof large and small companies, evenly distributed across junior andsenior positions and a diverse range of sectors.

Usage is high too, with more
people saying they access
Facebook and Twitter several
times a day, although LinkedIn,
Google+, Pinterest and MySpace
are all used much less.
But while Facebook is clearly
embedded in the lives of mostonline adults, it is predominantly
used for communication withfamily, friends and colleagues.
The primary reason for using
Twitter is to keep up-to-date withthe latest news, while for LinkedIn,
it is for professional promotion.

4 l www.keepsocialhonest.com

In the last three months, the following percentage
of social media users interacted with a brandor business on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

28% Clicked on a trending topic
27% Posted about a TV programme
Mentioned a brand, organisation

18% in a post, status update, tweet

60%

75%
53%

Taken part in a competition,

18% promotion, prize draw orother incentive

Clicked on a link through

16% to a brand’s website

Asked friends, contacts

14% or network for information,
help or advice

for a specific
16% Searchedbrand, organisation
Asked friends, contacts

12% or network for information,
help or advice

for a product10% Searchedor service

Interactions with brands
on social media
Beyond high levels of generalusage, we’re also seeing positive
engagement with brands acrossthe main social media platforms.
More than half of consumers
reported some form of interaction
with brands or businesses
on social media within the last
three months, with retail, foodand drink brands enjoying themost interaction.

“There’s a real sense of
growing brand activity onthese platforms, although
it’s interesting to note thatthose interacting with brands
are more likely to be on
Twitter than Facebook,despite the latter creating
reach way and above theother social networks”

Shaun Austin,
Director of Media Consulting,
YouGovAustin explains that in terms of
raw numbers, Facebook has more
people interacting with brands.
But brand activity is generally
much stronger on Twitter,showing that it is currently much
more brand-friendly even though
it’s smaller.
Over a quarter (28%) of
consumers have clicked on atrending topic on Twitter, forexample, compared to just 12%
on Facebook. And while 18%
of Twitter users have mentioneda brand in a tweet, just 8% havedone so on a Facebook post.
Meanwhile, clicking on an
advert or sponsored post andsearching for a product or service
shows a more level playing field,with around 10% of users doing
this on all three main social
media platforms.

www.keepsocialhonest.com l 5

65% of consumers will read
reviews on Amazon, TripAdvisor or
Mumsnet before buying a productor service.

The role of review sites
The role of customer review
sites in the purchasing journey
is where it gets most excitingfor organisations, with twothirds of consumers (65%)
reading a review before making
a purchase. The most visitedreview site is Amazon.co.uk,
with three in four respondents
having used it in the last threemonths, while one in three
has used TripAdvisor.

6 l www.keepsocialhonest.com

When it comes to posting reviews,
people are far keener to sharegood news about products andservices, with a third (34%) ofpeople posting a positive review
on their purchase – three times
more than those who posted
a negative review (11%).
Social media has nothing like thiskind of impact on readers’ buying
decisions. Just 17% of consumers
claim that social media – including
reviews, recommendations,ratings, scores and endorsements– has a strong influence on theirpurchasing decisions; while 27%
say it has little influence. This
links with our other findings
around trust, with one in fiveconsumers placing a high levelof trust in reviews, feedback andrecommendations in social media,
while TripAdvisor (7.2), Mumsnet(7.0) and Amazon (6.9) all receive
higher scores.

“Social networks score higher
in terms of frequency of use– people visit them multiple
times a day, whereas people
visit review sites only when
they are buying something –but it’s the review sites thatplay a much more active rolein the consumer journeyand so it’s no wonder that we
found consumers also trust
these sites more than social
media,”
Shaun Austin,
Director of Media Consulting,
YouGov

RelevanceOn the whole, consumers seevalue in the role that brands play,with over half (59%) saying theyagree that advertising throughsocial media increases brandvisibility, and over half (52%)
agreeing that companies increase
their sales by using social media
for marketing.
Even more marketers (66%) also
believe that brands’ presence
on social media is adding value
and making social media richer
and more engaging. Moreover,three-quarters of marketers (76%)
believe that increasing investment
by brands in content marketingthrough social media channels
will keep consumers engaged.
“This leads us to conclude thatbrands and consumers can
co-exist on social media,” says
Thomas Brown, Director ofStrategy and Insights at CIM. “But– and this is critical – consumers
are concerned about the way
brands are using social media
and if it annoys them, they havewarned that they will simply shutoff altogether, with some having
done so already.”

Indeed, if social media becomes
too overloaded with advertisingand marketing communications,almost a third of consumers(30%) say they are very likely
to stop using it, with almost thesame number (29%) saying thatadvertising and marketing onsocial media already irritates
them. The same number admit
they often hide brand updates
if they happen too often. Social
media sites ought to be for social
networking and not a market
place for promoting brands, say
the same figure.
Just 5% of consumers strongly
believe that relevant advertisingand marketing content onsocial media sites captures theirattention and only 3% don’t
mind seeing adverts on social
media sites that are based on
their profile activities, while aquarter (24%) mind a lot. “Themessage couldn’t be louder fromconsumers that they don’t wantsocial media to be overloadedwith brand communication,”concludes Austin. “Particularly
with Facebook, consumers see
it as being there to interact withfriends and family. They don’t
mind a bit of brand activity, but itshould never be in their face.”64%of consumers are likely to stopusing social media if they arebombarded with advertising.

58%

of consumers will hide brandupdates if they receive themtoo often.

61%of consumers are irritated byadvertising and marketing onsocial media.

59%

of consumers feel advertisingthrough social media increasesa brand’s visibility.

52%

of consumers recognise thatcompanies can increase theirsales by using social media
for marketing.

52%

of marketers think theeffectiveness of social media
as a marketing platform
is at risk due to dishonest orunethical behavior by brands.

82%

of marketers believe that without
the threat of fines or legal action
there will always be businesses
employing questionable tactics
on social media.

www.keepsocialhonest.com l 7

One in five consumers have high levels of confidence
in information seen on social media.
Trust
While consumers are savvy
to the marketing motives ofbusiness, they are sceptical
about its methods. Only one
in five of consumers (20%)
say they have high levels ofconfidence in the information
seen on social media, providing
testimony to the need forbrands to win back public trust.
“The vast majority sit on thefence when it comes to having
faith in the information they see
on social media and just 20%of people really trusts it,” says
Brown. “Unless somethingchanges, these channels arelikely to become less andless effective for brands andbusinesses over time, therefore
making investments in social
media worth less than ever.”
Facebook scores the lowestof the six social media sites weanalysed, with 6% of consumers
saying they have no confidence
at all in the information suchas recommendations, reviews,
ratings, scores and endorsements,
followed by Instagram, where
4% of consumers say they haveno confidence.
Review sites are trusted a great
deal more than social media
platforms, which reflects ourearlier finding that consumers
intentionally visit them to findout specific information abouta product or service before
making a purchase.
Reassuringly, marketers aren’t
ignorant of these concerns, with
57% of marketers saying theyfelt strongly that ‘bad behaviour’by brands on social media isfrustrating consumers and eroding
their trust in content.

8 l www.keepsocialhonest.com

Percentage of consumers who say they

Knowing what’s genuine
Just over a third of consumers(38%) think it’s easy to tellthe difference on social media
between commercial content
and non-commercial content.
Yet the majority of marketers areunder the illusion that consumers
have no trouble understanding
this, with 54% believing the
average online user is capableof distinguishing the difference
without signposts or labels.

have trust and confidence in information
they see on these platforms and sites.

Facebook46%
Twitter

55%
LinkedIn

69%
Google+56%

Instagram

49%
Pinterest

61%
Amazon79%
TripAdvisor

82%

Personal blog

67%

Brand/business blog

54%

Mumsnet74%

Consumers also find it hard totell whether brands are behaving
dishonestly. Although only 22%
can categorically say they haveseen brands behaving dishonestlyor unethically on social media,
suspicion is widespread, with wellover half (63%) finding it difficult
to know if brands are using
questionable methods.
They are right to be sceptical, with
51% of marketers saying they’ve
actually seen questionable content
on social media that appeared tohave been orchestrated by brands
but positioned as user-driven,
with examples including fakereviews and advertorial posing
as editorial.
“It’s encouraging to see thatmarketers recognise what’s goingon, although it is less heartening
to see the strong sense of‘It’s not me, guv!’” says Brown.
“Indeed, the overwhelming majorityof marketers say that in the last
two years, they are not aware ofanyone in any department of theirown organisation undertaking
questionable activities ranging
from making a payment tosomeone to editorially promotea brand without disclosing thepayment, to paying for followers,
fans or connections.”
No wonder that 44% of consumers
say it’s difficult to trust brands onsocial media, he concludes. “Theyare essentially saying, ‘we can’t
always tell the difference between
what’s commercial or not and we
can’t tell if brands are behaving
dishonestly or not. So the bottom
line is we aren’t at all comfortable,
and that’s making us tar all brands
with the same brush.”

38%

Only
of consumers can easily tellthe difference between marketing content andnon-commercial content on social media.

54%

Whereasof marketers believe
the average online user can distinguishmarketing content from non-commercial
content without signposts.

63%

of consumers
have difficultyin knowing
whether brands
are usingquestionable
methods onsocial media.

Purchasing behaviour
Not surprisingly, consumers
are starting to respond to theiruneasiness by voting with theirfeet, with almost half (47%)
saying they would be more
likely to change their purchasing
behaviour and boycott a brand ororganisation if they felt they weremanipulating social media.
“My message to brands would be
to watch out, as that’s half yourcustomers potentially stopping
buying your products andservices,” says Austin. “Let’s bereally clear about this – unethicalbehaviour is having a major impact
on consumers’ trust and actions.
In fact, I would expect the 47%
figure to just keep rising withoutsome kind of intervention. Afterall, marketers are telling us theyknow for sure that questionablebehaviour is going on and with
consumers already suspecting this,
it is only a matter of time before
greater numbers discover it’s true.”

47% of consumers
would be very
likely to boycotta brand if they
discovered it
was operating
unethically onsocial media.

Over 50% of consumers said they had no awarenessof brands using the following unethical behaviours onsocial media:• Faking a review on a social media site.
• Purchasing followers, fans or connections on social media.
• Paying or incentivising customers to share positive
messages on social media without this being madeclear to other users.
•P aying someone to promote a brand, product or service
within social media without disclosing the payment.
• Falsifyinguser-generated content (i.e. blog posts, blog
comments, testimonials, reviews etc.).

www.keepsocialhonest.com l 9

43% ofmarketers
findregulations
on socialmedia toocomplexand
confusing.
Regulation
More than half of consumers(54%) don’t think there areenough regulations governingmarketing communications,advertising and branded content
on social media.

Vulnerable Audiences
Consumers believe they have some responsibility in terms of selfregulating the use of social media. Indeed, when we asked them
who should be primarily responsible for protecting children frominappropriate online content, the majority (59%) – far more so thanmarketers, in fact, at 37% – said they felt it was down to parents tomonitor what children access. In fact, just one in 10 consumers (12%)
felt it was up to the social media platform to fix it, while the same
number felt it was up to regulators or industry bodies. One in fivemarketers (18%), on the other hand, thinks it is up to the social media
platform to ensure unsuitable content is not available to children.
“This tells us two things – first that people are not automatically placing
the onus on the regulators and certainly not the brand, which isreassuring, and second that marketers want more regulation in one
form or another,” says Austin.
Who should be primarily responsible for protecting children frominappropriate online content?

37%

Marketers agree that lack ofregulation is a problem, with asignificant four out of five (82%)
saying that without the threatof punitive fines or legal action,
there will always be businesses
employing questionable tactics
on social media.

59%

Current regulations just aren’t
fit for purpose, believemarketers, with 64% saying that
regulations governing marketing
communications, advertisingand branded content on social
media are too focused on “oldmedia” and don’t apply well tosocial media.

12%What’s more, marketers believe
they are too complicated, withnearly half (43%) claiming that
regulations governing brandactivity on social media are toocomplex and confusing for the
average marketer to understand.
That said, 28% of marketers
think that further regulation will
only serve to restrict innovationand creativity and 34% believe
consumers would be best served
if brands’ presence on social
media was self-regulatedby the industry, rather thanmonitored by government andother regulators.
“In fact, nobody thinks the answers
are simple, with both consumers(62%) and marketers in agreementthat the ethics of organisations’use of social media is hard
to police,” says Brown.

10 l www.keepsocialhonest.com

18%
12%
12%

24%
8%

Parents

The social media platform

Regulators/industry bodies

Brands/companies

Marketers
Consumers

Blame
Almost half of marketers (49%) park the blame on agencies forquestionable activities on social media, such as buying followers or likes,
although these marketers do acknowledge that this is primarily due
to clients putting pressure on measures such as number of views, likes,
followers etc.
“Clearly, agencies need to take their ethical responsibilities more
seriously when it comes to social media, but clients must also recognisethat if they set unreasonable demands – insisting on an ambitious
number of views for a YouTube video in a short period of time – forinstance, there are inevitable repercussions. We would therefore
urge both agencies and marketers to adopt our Ten Commandments,
otherwise the problem may be perpetuated.” says Brown.

“It’s one thing for consumers
The regulatory environment
to get it wrong, but if
We asked both consumers andmarketers to tell us if they thought marketers themselves don’t
understand regulation, it’s nocertain statements aroundwonder that there is so much
regulation of social media are true
questionable behaviour going on
or false. The answers revealed ain social media. If we’re going toreal lack of clarity around current
keep social honest, it’s time forregulations among both groups.
more clarity,” says Brown.
Marketers recognise theHe adds, “With consumers tellingproblem. Indeed, a mere 4%
us they are going to switch off if
consider themselves a subjectmarketers don’t pull their socks
matter expert in the regulatory
up around questionable activity
environment affecting marketingon social media, there could notcommunications, advertising and
be a better time for marketers tobranded content on social media,
get to grips with both what they
with most (45%) saying they
can and can’t do and should andhave some limited awareness but
shouldn’t do.”not enough to apply themto decision making.
When it comes to specificactivities undertaken byorganisations to ensurecompliance with regulations
and legislation relating to brandactivity on social media, it
becomes even clearer that brands
aren’t doing everything they could.

Indeed, 92% of organisations
do not require relevant staff
to undergo periodic tests/
assessments, while 68% do
not encourage and support
their employees to incorporate
these areas into their personal
development. A huge 79% do not
conduct internal audits to ensurecompliance and 72% have notappointed internal subject matter
experts or champions. “Many of
the approaches we surveyed havelittle or no cost implication forbusinesses, and are therefore easy
to adopt quickly; it suggests thatthe issue of compliance hasn’tquite made it far enough up thelist of priorities, despite its clear
links to reputation.” points
out Brown.

Consumers’ views on whether certain activities on social media are acceptable and have little or no
detrimental impact on users, or ethically questionable and misleading for users.
48%

Giving products away for free to encourage
positive online reviews

27%
28%

Encouraging their employees to like and sharebrand messages on social media

41%
21%

Requiring sponsors, suppliers or partners toshare positive messages about their brand

45%
15%

Paying or incentivising influential social media
users to promote their brand55%

Paying or incentivising customers/consumers
to share positive messages about their brand

55%

Deleting negative reviews,
posts or comments

13%

11%
67%
10%

Paying bloggers to write positively
about their product or service

60%
9%

Buying fans or likes
on Facebook

66%

Using techniques to hide negative
content within search results

67%

Buying followers
on Twitter

65%

Creating fake accounts for leaving
positive reviews or comments

8%

6%

6%
71%

Acceptable commercial activities
Ethically questionable activities

www.keepsocialhonest.com l 11

Questionable activities
Creating fake accounts for leaving
positive reviews and comments
is the most ethically questionable
activity on social media, agree
both consumers and marketers,
although marketers are far more
likely to frown upon it, withnine out of 10 marketers (91%)
believing it is questionable – farmore than the seven out of 10
consumers (71%).
Marketers are also more likely
to think it’s questionable to buyfans or likes on Facebook(80% of marketers vs 66% ofconsumers) and buying followers
on Twitter (79% of marketers vs
65% of consumers).

“When it comes down to thenitty-gritty of which specificactivities are considered dubious,
there is significant inconsistency
in the beliefs of marketers versus
consumers,” says Brown.
“To see such differences inopinion between industry andconsumers is concerning – inpractical terms, for instance,
this means marketers may be
But consumers are more criticalwhen it comes to using techniques harnessing their employees tohelp share company messages
to hide negative content withinon social media, only to findsearch results, with almost
this is considered misleading
two-thirds (67%) of consumers
by users and inadvertently
thinking this is questionable
creating concerns.”
compared to just over a third(38%) of marketers. Consumers
also thought that encouraging
their employees to like and sharebrand messages on social media
was dodgy (41%) compared tojust 15% of marketers.
Likewise, marketers arequicker to question deleting
negative reviews, posts orcomments, paying bloggers
to write positively about theirproduct or service and paying
or incentivising consumers toshare positive messages about
their brand.

IN CLOSING

FIND OUT MORE

“We’re all aware of the dramatic adoption of social media and its
profound impact on how we connect, communicate and collaborate,
but what’s unclear – as our research has proven – is how brands andconsumers can co-exist in these digital spaces.

Explore the Ten Commandments
in full, why they’ve been created
and what they mean foryour organisation.

In putting our research to both consumers and industry, we’vedeveloped a unique and in-depth understanding of quite how different
the views of these audiences can be. It’s positive to see broad
recognition by the UK public that businesses indeed have a valueadding role to play within social media, but it’s concerning how muchconsumers’ confidence has been shaken.

www.keepsocialhonest.com

Of particular concern are the wide differences in opinion as to thesorts of activities considered ethically questionable and misleading, as
opposed to acceptable and of no detriment to users. This means it’s
not just those businesses intentionally misleading consumers that are
the problem – even the most well-meaning brands might be pursuing
activities on social media without realising they’re contributing to aconcern amongst consumers.
It’s for these reasons we’ve created a voluntary set of standards forbusiness – the ‘Ten Commandments’ – to help reduce the need for a
restrictive or costly legislative response and maintain the integrity
and value of social media for consumers and businesses alike. As longas there’s a weak link in the chain or one rotten apple in our barrel, it
will have an impact on all of us. If, on the other hand, industry takes
action in a transparent, principled and consistent manner, it will benefit
consumers and industry alike and will ultimately, keep social honest.”
Thomas Brown,
Director of Strategy and Insights,
CIM